Welcome to Inside Onix Bikes: Road Cycling Blog. the musings of a bike brand owner including the inside track on our plans, interesting people I meet, my cycling exploits , cycling in general and cake.

Monday, 16 April 2012

The Scottish Bike Show 2012

So Onix has completed its first bike show and publicly unveiled the Onix Black RH Rob Hayles signature range to the world, well Scotland anyway.

Before I get onto the show I would like to say a few words about the organiser Rowan Mackie. I know just how hard it is to to get a new venture off the ground that you have 100% belief in. There are many shows in southern England, not so many in northern England and none North of the border till Rowan came onto the scene.

Rowan played a massive part in bringing us to the show and we are so glad we did. The shows organisation was first class,looked great and there was plenty to keep family's and keen cyclists alike amused for hours on end. Rowan deserves all of our support as exhibitors and visitors because without people like Rowan willing to take the risk and do something thats never been done before like a big show for the Scottish public we would all be the worse off for it.

Onto the show !!

After a long drive up to Glasgow with trustee Onix Mechanic Mike Jackson who was my right hand man for the weekend we arrived at the SCC exhibition centre. Onix was sharing a stand with our good friends NRG4 Sales who were a couple of hours behind us on the road. As myself and Mike started to get the kit out of the car the scale of our stand became very apparent. So a last gasp decision which turned out to be an inspired one was made to put the Onix Team Car on the stand. This meant an hour for me driving around Glasgow trying to find a hand car wash to get it gleaming for this purpose. After a frustrating time in rush hour city traffic I returned to find the NRG4 peeps unloading there van.

As the stand started to take shape I went over to the hotel which was only next door to check in and pick up our huge banner of a screaming red & blue Rob Hayles face.I had arranged for it to be sent direct to the hotel to be sure we would have it on time. The hotel was lovely but no banner, slight panic ensued but after a few phone calls I was assured it would arrive on the morning of the show on time.

Luckily after waking up a little hazy after a late night in the bar with fellow exhibitors & friends Purple Harry the banner duly arrived and as the first member of the public streamed in our stand designed by NRG4 Sales really did look fantastic.

The very 1st ever Onix show stand

As the show progressed it became more and more apparent just how important it is to get our bikes seen in the flesh. Only then did people truly appreciate the look of the bikes and the intricate gloss detailing on the finish. Then you spend some time showing people the reviews and informing them of the lengths we go to using a former world champion to test our bikes. The reaction to all of this was phenomenal.

The Onix Black RH/Pro literally stopped people in there tracks.

In this world of fast technology,instant communication and social media there is still no substitute for looking someone in the eye and just communicating with them on that personal level. The show was an outstanding success for Onix for so many reasons. Yes we secured some bike sales but much more important than that is the amount of people we met & talked to who I believe went away with Onix firmly now on there radar as a bike company to watch in the future.

We certainly look forward to supporting The Scottish Bike Show again next year and we are quickly turning our attention now to hopefully making our 2nd show appearance at The Irish Bike Show in May.. Were working on that right now !!